Trans-Dimensional Realities - Joel Sturgis: Cryptids, Ghosts & UFO's

September 3, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In 1996, radio host Joel Sturgis was working a Sunday morning shift at a country music station in Dallas when his colleague Cowboy Roy walked in, drank a hot cup of coffee, and chatted for fifteen minutes as usual. Later that morning, the station manager told Sturgis that Roy had died the night before. Sturgis marched upstairs to prove the manager wrong. Roy was gone. But the coffee cup was still there, and the coffee was still hot. That experience — a dead man he had spoken with, leaving behind a physical object he could not explain — turned a casual interest in the paranormal into a thirty-year investigation.

The limits of paranormal investigation

Sturgis is blunt about what paranormal investigation can and cannot do. After years of running a group in New Jersey with engineers and police officers on the team, he concluded that most investigations do not help anyone. Groups go into private homes, capture EVPs or ghost box sessions, and leave the residents with the same problem they had before. "We weren't helping anybody," he says. "And we weren't proving anything."

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What you'll learn

1 (00:49) **Introduction & Guest Background** - Host Melissa Lee welcomes Joel Sturgis, an American author and 30-year paranormal investigator.
2 (03:26) **The Cowboy Roy Encounter** - Joel tells the story of his first major paranormal experience with a deceased coworker.
3 (10:18) **Defining the Phenomenon: Time Slip vs. Ghost** - Joel and Melissa debate the nature of the Roy encounter, introducing the concept of interdimensional overlap.
4 (14:00) **The Problem with Paranormal Investigation** - Joel critiques the lack of scientific rigor in ghost hunting and the failure to help clients.
5 (18:37) **Cryptids: The Harder Evidence** - The conversation shifts to cryptids, where Joel argues there is more physical evidence than for ghosts.
6 (22:22) **The Paranormal Quality of Cryptid Sightings** - Joel shares a story from an Ohio Bigfoot hunter involving a mysterious orb of light.
7 (28:28) **Joel's Own Bigfoot Sighting** - Joel describes his personal, life-changing encounter with a Bigfoot in northern Minnesota.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

This week Milyssa talks with Joel Sturgis. Joel is an American author, longtime paranormal and cryptid investigator, and host and producer of After Hours AM. Joel has spent more than 30 years investigating Bigfoot, ghosts, and other unexplained phenomena. He is also the author of The American Cryptid Hunter's Field Guide.

Be sure to visit Milyssa's website: https://milyssaleigh.com

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/paranormal-uk-radio-network--4541473/support.